Teach Your 'Childrens' Well

By: Mark Knoller
Topics: Field Notes

(CBS)

Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News.

NEW YORK (CBS) - Every president makes grammatical errors. We all do.

But it's really embarrassing when you're making a point about education in America and your audience includes school kids.

It happened to President Bush here this morning during an event to trumpet the findings of yesterday's national report card on 4th and 8th grading reading and math scores.

"In math, the scores for 4th and 8th graders were higher than they've ever been," said Mr. Bush. "In reading, the scores for 4th graders were also the highest on record."

And he asserts that his No Child Left Behind program, which requires annual testing in reading and math and imposes sanctions on schools that don't meet the grade, deserves a good share of the credit.

At an event this morning with the Mayor of New York and the city's schools Chancellor, Mr. Bush said the program is "working for all kinds of children in all kinds of schools in every part of the country."

But the measure expires this year and Pres. Bush is waging an aggressive effort to get Congress to extend and expand the program.

"And so my call to the Congress," he said, "is don't water down this good law. Don't go backwards when it comes to educational excellence. Don't roll back accountability. We've come too far to turn back."

But with kids from P.S. 76 listening carefully, the President also said:

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured."

Childrens do learn? We know what he meant, it just came out wrong – and during an event about reading writing and arithmetic.

But Mr. Bush likes to boast that he's living proof that even a "C" student can grow up to be President.

Even one who makes grammatical errors.

Mark Knoller
Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent.
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by unclereggie2 September 26, 2007 9:12 PM EDT: So in just about 8 years we have gone from "...is our children learning" to "...childrens do learn."

Well, perhaps childrens do learn, but this president obviously does not and can not.; Reply to this comment


by kettlecooper September 26, 2007 5:52 PM EDT: Katie, We don''t pay you 15mil to tell the public whether you feel the president misled the country or not. Leave that to other politicians. The 15mil we give you is for you to be a journalist. ie. report news, not make news. CBS is not a forum for you to air your personal opinions. If you are disgusted with the war in Iraq, you can go to the poll booth on election day and express your opinion there. Neither is CBS a place for you to pit women against men. Don''t blame your failure in ratings to say men don''t prefer women in power. There are more women in this country who could be potential viewers for your evening news. If people are not watching you, the only way we can fix that is to put somebody there whom people would love to watch. There are enough aspiring women and men journalists who would cherish the opportunity to be an evening news anchor. If you have problems with Dan Rather''s lawsuit, goto the courtroom and complain. We do not think you should be airing your views about a news anchor who was pivotal for CBS evening news for decades.; Reply to this comment


by memekiller September 26, 2007 4:33 PM EDT: "But Mr. Bush likes to boast that he%u2019s living proof that even a %u201CC%u201D student can grow up to be President."

You can have bad bad grades and still be ELECTED President, not BE President. Two very different things.; Reply to this comment